Gas-engine.



H. H. CUTLER.

GAS ENGINE.

APPLICATION FILED mAY1B.1917.

Patented Apr. 22,1919.

2 SHEETS-SHEET l.

. TTOHIVE V5 H. H. CUTLER.

GAS ENGINE.

APPLICATION HLED 11|AY113` 1917.

Patented Apr. 22,1919.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

Q, 1li/IIJ 71|; m` k, W m Qn, m f m m n f wm s K s@ @w @Nv E ,Svv f i MR, H NQ NW hv wm @NX 1 any@ im ATo all whom it* may concern:

HENY H. CUTLER, 0F BROKLENE, MASSACHUSETTS.

GAS-ENGENE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 22, 19119.

' animationen@ nay is, ma. semina. leasen.

Be it known that'll, HENRY CUTLER,

a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at Brookline,l in the county of Norfolk and State of Mass., have invented new and useful Improvements in Gras-Engines, of which the following is a full, clear, concise, and

eXact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification.

My invention relates to improvements inl gas engines, and particularly to means for scavenging the engines. One of the objects of my invention is to provide auxiliary scavenging means independent of the en gine shaft for clearing the cylinders of the exhaust products of combustion after an eX- plosion has taken place therein.

Another object of my invention is to provide scavenging means' .in the form of pistons, said pistons beingoperated entirely independently of the englne shaft, and the pistons and operating means being constructed in a unit which may be readily substituted for the cylinder lhead of an ordi# nary commercial car.

.For the purpose of disclosing my invention l have illustrated in the accompanying drawings one embodiment' thereof. ln said drawings- Figure 1 is a longitudinal section of'a four-cylinder engine yembodying my invention;

Fig line 2 2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 -is a top plan view of the structure illustrated in Fig. 1;-and A Y Fi 4: is a diagrammatic view illustrating t e operation of the invention whenused in connection with a six-cylinder engine.

n the embodiment illustrated, in Figs. 1 to 3, l have shown a four-cylinder engine, in which the cylinders 1, 2, 3 and t may be constructed in the usual manner. ll have particularly illustrated in these figures the type of cylinder which is provided with a removable cylinder head and has the valves in the side. rlhese cylinders, as usual, are surrounded by the water jacket 5 and have operating therein, respectively, the pistons 6, 7, 8 and 9. The intake and exhaust valves .10 and 11 of each cylinder are arranged in the side, as is usual in many of the commercial automobile engines.

. 2 is a transverse section taken on the der-head, ll provide a single unit-head .consisting of a single casting12 havin suitable bolt holes 13 therein through whic bolts 14C maybe passed to secure the casting directly on the top of the engine cylinder castiiig.` ln this single casting 12 there are formed -a plurality of cylinders 15, 16, 17 and 18, forming in eHect extensions, respectively, of the cylinders 1, 2, 3 and 4:; or, in other words, these additional cylinders form compression chambers for each of the cylinders 1, 2, 3 and 4.-

Operating in the respective cylinders thus formed in the casting 12 are a plurality of pistons 19, 20, 21 and 22. rl`hese pistons are connected by suitable connecting rods 23 with cranks 211 on a crank shaft 25 cranks of the pistons 21 and 22. are 90 apart. rlPhis crank shaft 25 is entirely inde.

pendentof the crankshaft of the engine and lis not connected thereto, the rotation ofthe crank shaftY depending upon the compression and explosion of the charges in the respective cylinders.

In operation, we will assume' that piston 6 is fonlthebeginning of itspower stroke,

that'i's,1acharge 1s compressedv in the cham-4 ber `formed lbetween the piston 6 and the,

pistonj19. Thecrank on the shaft 25 'of the piston 19 is at its uppermost point and therefore on a dead center, with the connecting rod 23 extending in a straight line from the piston'19 to the crank, so that the pressure .ofthe explosive charge on these parts will not tend to rotate the same. With the piston 6 and the piston 19 in this position, the piston 8 of cylinder 3 will beat the end of a powerstroke and at the beginning ofthe exhaust stroke, while the piston 21 thereof will be in a half-way position be tween its extreme up and extreme down position. The piston 7 of cylinder 2 will be at the point of moving upwardly on its compression stroke and the piston 20 half-Way point between its extreme upper and extreme lower movement. The piston 9 of the cylinders: will be at the extreme' upper end of its exhaust stroke and the of the scavenging mechanism will be at a vto iston 22 will have been moved down to 1ts extreme lowermost position so that these two pistons 22 and 9 will almost meet, there being the very smallest clearance space permissible between these two, so that the volume which can be occupied by the exhaust will be reduced to the minimum.

With the arrangement as above described, the power stroke takes place, driving down the piston 6.A At the same time the piston 7 moves up on its vcompression stroke. The crank connected with piston 19 is on the 'top' dead center, where it remains stationary during the power stroke of the piston 6. At the moment the exhaust valve in cylinder 1 opens the pressure in. that cylinder is greatly reduced, and at the same time the compression in cylinder 2 is almost at its maximum, the cylinder 2, it being remembered, being moving on its compression stroke. This compression pressure acting upon piston 20, the crank of which is at right angles to itsdirection of motion, turns the shaft 25, moving the crank of the piston 19 downwardly and toward the horizontal. At the same time, the crank of the piston 21 is moved from its horizontal ,to its downward position, thus forcing the piston 21 downwardly to meet the .upcoming piston, thereby clearingthe cylinder 3 of the exhaust gases. At the same time, the crank of piston 22 is moved up to the horizontal, the piston 9 moving down on its intake or admlssion stroke. While 'as a matter of fact the compression in cylinder 2 during this operation tends to m'ove the piston 20 upwardly, the upward movement of this piston is really due to the combined effectof the compression and thel nextexplosion stroke, the compression and. explosion strokein a way overlappmg to producethe upward movement of the piston. The piston 6 having reached the downward limit of. its stroke of course begins on its upward movement on its exhaust stroke. The piston 9 is likewise moving up on its compression stroke, so that the partial rotation of the shaft 5 which was begun by the combined compression and explosive movement.

of the piston 7 will be completed. by the combined compression and explosion taking place inthe cylinder`4, and vcomplete the downward movement of the piston "19 so that by the time the piston 19 reaches the lower limit of its stroke the piston 6 will f have reached the u-pper limit of its stroke,

the two thus approaching each other and reducing the vexplosion chamber in the cylinder 1 to the minimum in size, thereby clearing out all o-the burned gases and carbon.

The cycle of operation vthus described continues in the different cylinders, the shaft 25 being rotated in one direction by the combined compression and explosion of the charge in two cylinders for the purpose the downward limit of the its stroke to scavenge the engine. 1t is apparent that the movement of the shaft-25 is entirely independent, so far as any mechanical connection is concerned, of the engine shaft, and is in no way driven from the engine shaft.

In a six-cylinder engine, the construction of the parts is the same as in the fourcylinder engine, except, however, the cranks are differently arranged.

In F ig. 4 I have illustrated diagrammatically a six-cylinder engine. This engine, as will be seen, comprises the cylinders 28, 29, 30, 31, 32 and 33, in which operate, respectively, the pistons 34, 35, 36, 37, 38 and 39.

The scavenging pistons 40, 41, 42, 43, 44 and 45, respectively, operate in the cylinders 28 to 33, inclusive. .These scavenging pistons are connected by pitmen 46 with cranks on the shaft 47. Operating as they do on a six-cylinder engine, the cranks 48, 49, 50, 51, 52 and 53 are disposed at diiierent angles than those of the four-cylinder engine. Cranks 48 and 53 are 180 apart with respect to each other. 'The same is true of cranks 49 and 52 and 50 and 51. This, however, places cranks 48 and 49 only 60 apart and cranks 49 and 50 60 apart, and so on.

In operation, we will assume for purpose of illustration that the piston 34 is just starting on its downward power stroke, that is, an explosion has taken place in the cylinder 28. It will be noted. that under these conditions the piston 40 is at .the uppermost limit of its stroke and the crank 48 is on its upward dead center. Piston 38 is at -the same time moving up on its compression stroke, reaching the limit of its compression stroke,however,before the piston 34 tirely relieved, and the shaft 47 will be given a partial rotation to move piston 40 downto meet the ascending piston 34, ran

initialpartial rotation to the shaft 47 having been given by the explosion of the f charge in cylinder. 32, the piston of which has started o n its power stroke before the power stroke of piston 34 is completed, As the power of the explosion in cylinder 32 is greater than the partially expanded eX- plosion in cylinder 28, the shaft 47'will roi tate even though the exhaust valve in cylin- Leonesa der 28 is not yet opened. The next explosion will take place in cylinder 30, which will likewise give a partial down movement to the piston 40, and this down movementv the completion of its exhaust stroke.

This cycle of operation, with respect to cylinder 1, of course, takes place with each of the cylinders, so that a complete scavenging of each of the cylinders takes place. It Will be understood that in this construction I used the same single rotating shaft for operating the scavenging pistons that I did in the four-cylinder engine.

In the four-cylinder engine the movement of the scavenging piston is produced partially by the compression of the charge in the cylinder and partially by the explosion of the charge, vvhile in the six-cylinder engine the entire movement is caused by the explosion of the charge in the cylinders.

Having thus described my invention, What I claim as new and desire to secure by Let-- ters Patent is:

-l. In an explosive engine, the com'bination with a plurality of engine cylinders, each having an explosion chamber therein, of means supplemental to the engine pistons for forcing out of the cylinder the products of combustion after an explosion has taken place, and a rotary shaft operatively independent of the engine shaft for operating said means.

2. In an explosive engine, the combination with a plurality of engine cylinders, each having an explosion chamber therein, of scavenglng pistons operating in said chambers, and a rotary shaft operatively independent of the engineshaft for operating said means.

3. In an explosive engine, the combination With a plurality of engine cylinders, each having an explosion chamber therein, of means contracting the volume of said chambers to force the products of combustion out of the same after each explosion, and a rotary shaft operatively independent of the engine shaft operating said means.

4. In an explosive engine, the combination With a plurality of engine cylinders, each having an explosion chamber therein, of auxiliary means mechanically and operatively independent of the engine shaft and operated by the explosion of a charge in the other cylinders for scavenging each cyl'nr der of the products of combustion after an explosionhas taken place. f

5. In an explosive engine, the combination with a plurality of engine cylinders havin their valves in the side thereof, of a cylin er head unit cmprising a single casting having a plurality of explosion chambers therein coperating with said cylinders, scavenging means operatin in each' of said chambers and a rotary shaft operatively independent of the crank shaft of the engine and mounted on said casting for operating said means.

6. The combination With a plurality of engine cylinders having the valves in the side, of a cylinder head unit arranged to be bodily fastened to said engine cylinders and having a plurality -of auxiliary cylinders cooperating with the engine cylinders to form extensions thereof, a plurality of scavenging pistons operating in said auxiliary cylinders and means operatively independent of the engine shaft for operating said pistons. v

7. The combination with a plurality of engine cylinders, having the valves in the side, of a cylinder head unit arranged to be bodily fastened to said engine cylinders and having a plurality of auxiliary cylinders cooperating With the engine cylinders to form extensions thereof, a plurality of scavenging pistons operating in said auxiliary cyl-- inders and a rotary shaft operatively independent of the engine shaft for operating said pistons.

8. The combination with a pluralityA of engine cylinders having the valves in the side, of a. cylinder head unit arranged to be bodily fastened to the engine cylinders and comprising a casting having a plurality of auxiliary cylinders formed therein and coperating Wit-h the engine cylinders to form extensions thereof, a plurality of scavenging pistons operating in said auxlhary cylinders, bearings formed on said casting and rotating shaft mounted in said bearings and operatively independent of the engine shaft for operating said scavenging pistons.

9. In a gas engine, the combination With a plurality of engine cylinders, of scavenging means supplemental to the engine pistons for each of said cylinders, and a shaft rotated by the pressure produced in the remaining cylinders for 4-operating the scavenging means of each of said cylinders, said shaft being operatively independent of the engine shaft.

10. In a gas engine, the combination with a plurality of engine cylinders each having an explosion chamber, of scavenging means supplemental to the engine pistons operating in said explosion chambers, a rotating shaft for operating said scavenging means, operatively independent of the engine shaft and rotated by the pressure produced in the engine cylinders.

ll. In a gas engine, the combination With a plurality of engine cylinders each having In Witness whereof, I have hereunto suhafn exiension, of scavenging pistons flo? each scribed my name.

o sai extensions, and arotatin s a t o eratively independent of the ertiggine shalit HENRY H' CUTLER and rotated 'by the pressure produced in the Witnesses :i

engine cylinders and exerted upon said JAMES E. YOUNG,

scavenging pistons. RENE M. WEBBER. 

